EXCEPTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS ON deviantART ED. AUGUST

This month we introduce you to Vuk Adzic form Serbia, a.k.a.  


Vuk captures moments he witnesses in his life and the lives of people around him. He shares the insights on creating visual narratives through sets of emotion-evoking photographs. He looks at pieces of his world and finds more worlds inside them.We interview him and speak about his journey as a photographer.

Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born in Novi Sad in 1975 and today I live in Temerin, a small town in Serbia. I am employed at The Faculty of Technical Science as an administrator of computer network. I have exhibited in more than 15 group exhibitions and I have received many awards. I used to spend my free time fishing and now I spend it taking photos.



How did your relationship with Photography begin and how has it developed through the years?
I can’t say that my parents bought me a camera when I was a child because they didn’t. There were some poor quality cameras in my house, but they were rarely used . These days I am working on a project using the one like that. But let’s get back to the start. I bought my first camera when digital technology spread over the market and became generally accessible, some 5-6 years ago. Like most people who take the camera without any ideas, I first started to take photos of landscapes. In 2011, I became a member of the Photo Club Vojvodina. That’s the very beginning of my involvement in documentary photography. I initially focused on the lives of people in the country and later I expanded my focus to the life of people in public places.



What do you enjoy photographing most?
Today I enjoy most taking photos of the events on the street, documentary photography, and taking photos of people in my immediate environment, of those people who are part of my life. Usually I set up a theme as a project or I do series of photos.



Which photographers influenced you?
I can classify the authors here into two groups, I would put some older photographers whose work I admire and often observe, like Josef Kudelka and Alex Webb, into the first, and some younger, but highly inspiring,like Gustavo Minas i Alison McCauley, into the second. I often visit collective sites such as: magnum, in-public and street photographers.



What does Photography offer you?
I have never thought about it. I love taking photos, everything else comes by itself, so I don’t even observe all the beauty I get as the result of my involvement in photography. I make no difference between photos and life, because the camera is always with me.



What equipment do you use?

Digital camera I use is Nikon D600, and lens for it are Nikon 50mm 1.8D and manual objective Nikon 35mm f2.8.
I use Ricoh KR-10 and Pentax ME for the films, and Ricoh 50mm f2.0 and Admiral 35mm 2.8 objectives.



What is your favorite time of the day photographing in the streets?
There is no special part of the day for me, there are just scenes which I find worth filming and then I try to adjust to the imposed conditions.



Choose one or two photos you have taken and explain why they are special to you?
Ok, the first photo is the photo of my father. It’s important to me because it was the first photo I took after my mother’s death and I think I expressed my spiritual state at that moment through it. When I get back to this photo I always realize that nothing has changed, that it is exactly what I was feeling at that time and the same emotions come back to me. I am very fond of it.

www.dropbox.com/s/rbod90o775ue…

The other is not just one photo but a series of photos of my friend Vlada. It’s important for me because I have been working on this series for three years. I named the project 42 square meters. I have been trying to recreate the life of this man without leaving his life space. I have singled out some 25 photos so far, but I don’t know how many of them will there eventually be.

www.dropbox.com/s/ljc2c49j0n0f…

What is your style and what tricks do you use in order to 'steal' a photo of strangers in strange situation?
For me it’s harder to find an interesting scene than to capture the scene I see. I’m not the one of those who are, at any cost, trying to be inconspicuous. I take photos on the street in two ways.
1. I see a frame which suits me and I wait for the characters to fit into it. In that case I often stand on the street and all the passers-by realize that I am going to take a photo.
2. I see an interesting happening or scene and I raise my camera on approaching it. In that case I find useful taking photos with just one objective. Mostly, while approaching the scene I know what I am going to get in a frame, so I combine the elements that are going to become a part of my photo without raising the camera.



What kind of impression do you hope to leave upon others who see your photographs?
All the photos I take, I take for myself, without thinking about others, but yet, I have the need to make them public for one reason. The reason is my grasping of the “life” of a photo. I dare to state that the photo doesn’t really exist while only its author is familiar with it. I don’t know how it will be accepted by the public, or if anyone will recognize the things I see in it, or what impression it will leave on the observer, but I am glad to see that some people find something interesting in them.



Any final thoughts for our readers?
If you sit still, you won’t do anything. Just keep walking, look around yourself because there is a photo waiting to be taken everywhere around us. I wish you good light.

***

Enjoy some of his marvelous photos








Journal made by  on behalf of the
TPA Team